Monday, February 17, 2014

Book Review: Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)

Anna Whitt, the daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a vow. She’d been naive about a lot of things.

Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?

Review:

Protagonist: Throughout my reading of this book I kept trying to figure out what trope out narrator, Anna Whitt, fell under. Unfortunately I had a really hard time putting her into a category, on the one hand, while she's not a particularly active protagonist, meaning she's not recklessly going out and doing everything she can to fulfill her destiny, she's not completely stagnant. In fact, even though we only really see her in action when she's following orders, she's not the innocent little girl she was in the first book. She's matured and learned to defend herself and those she cares about. If I had to put her in some kind of trope or archetype, I don't think I could. Part of me wishes she'd be a bit more kick-ass, which will hopefully happen in the next and final book, but at the same time I respect her good girl attitude and that she won't let herself be corrupted by outside influences.

Romance: So I have way too many mixed feelings on the romance of this book. On one hand I really enjoyed the many facets this book contained, yet on another I kind of felt that the romance overshadowed the main plot many times over this book. The love triangle is once again developed in this book and once again, I couldn't take it seriously at any point in the story, one because Kai is on the covers of all the books, and two because it was actually resolved for the most part in this book. There were a few other smaller romances that caught my attention. Also, just wondering, am I the only one that's kind of shipping Anna's dad and Patty? I mean I know he's in love with Anna's mom, but there were a couple moments that I kind of felt some attraction. For the most part though, the romance was swirling around Anna and Kai and their electric chemistry.

World-Building: With this being the middle book of this trilogy, I had expected it to hold a lot of world-building, and I wasn't surprised to find out that it held that and so much more. This is the first book where there's a really definitive path for this series. In the first installment there was really just a whole lot of setup and introduction to the stakes of this world. In this installment however a set path and prophecy of sort is introduced that set the tone and outline for the rest of the series. While I hoped for a bit more action I did enjoy how this book was spaced out for the most part, my only criticism, is that there is a surplus of time jumps that just took me out of the story for a bit, but after a while I began to see the reasons for the jumps and that melted my dislike for them a little bit.

Predictability: Once again this book is a bit mixed, though this time in a good way. What I mean is that there were plenty of things that I could see coming, but the end result and execution were completely unpredictable. Of course this was also sprinkled with the completely blind sighting moments that left me gasping and absolutely shocked. This all made for a very entertaining and enjoyable reading experience.

Ending: The ending, sadly, was a bit anticlimactic. With this being the penultimate installment, I was hoping for a shocking, over the top, cliffhanger, but unfortunately we're left with a plateaued ending better suited to a first installment, and while I understand that it helps curb the intense need for the next installment, I was kind of hoping for some huge cliffhanger that totally changed everything, but instead the book felt a bit unfinished. I think maybe another chapter with that game changing ending would have been a great addition to this book.

Rating:

I'm still holding true to my admission that my first impressions of this series were wrong, both this and the first installment were really enjoyable reads and I cannot wait to read the final installment, in fact I may just do that now. *wink*

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According to the FTC, I must point out that all the books reviewed on my blog were; purchased by myself, borrowed from the library, won in a giveaway, or received from the author or publisher in exchange for an honest review. All reviews on books received from the author or publisher will be clearly stated, if not then they were purchased by me. I do not receive or accept compensation for writing reviews.